WNBA Record Crowd Watches Wings‘ Win Over Tempo

MONTREAL—A document crowd of 20,996 packed Montreal’s Bell Centre on Friday evening, making historical past within the course of.

Picture: courtesy of the Dallas Wings.

By the point it was over, the biggest common season crowd in WNBA historical past watched the Dallas Wings win a 108-95 last over the Toronto Tempo within the league’s debut in La Métropole. Dallas (14-9) used a 24-10 fourth quarter to drag away from a shorthanded Tempo staff and earn its fourth consecutive win.

It was an electrifying recreation with two high WNBA scorers buying and selling buckets: Paige Bueckers scored 34 factors with six rebounds and assists whereas Marina Mabrey match her on 10-of-18 capturing, together with 6-of-9 from three-point vary in a dropping effort.

Good Attendance

Friday’s crowd surpassed the WNBA common season single-game document of 20,711, beforehand set by the Washington Mystics and Indiana Fever in September 2024 at Capital One Enviornment. Washington additionally hosted the document breaker that stood for 26 years, as 20,674 took in a showdown with the Charlotte Sting in the identical constructing through the Mystics‘ inaugural season in 1998.

Solely two crowds in league historical past have been bigger than Friday’s, and each additionally got here in the identical constructing. because the Detroit Shock drew 22,076 followers twice on the outdated Palace of Auburn Hills. The primary was the series-clinching win within the 2003 WNBA Finals they usually repeated the fats in one other win-or-go-home Finals recreation in 2007. These stay the WNBA’s all-time attendance record-holders although Friday’s crowd is now the biggest ever to observe a regular-season recreation.

A Greater Second for the League

For head coach Sandy Brondello and her Tempo, Friday was about multiple consequence. Toronto is the WNBA’s solely Canadian franchise and the staff has branded itself as „Canada’s staff“ whereas enjoying video games throughout the nation this season. Toronto has yet another recreation in Toronto on Sunday towards the New York Liberty (3 p.m. ET, TSN) as a part of a „Canada Collection,“ which can even function two extra in Vancouver later this summer time.

„I feel we’re Canada’s staff,“ Brondello mentioned. „It is all a part of the method, and this has been years within the making. To lastly be right here, residing these conversations and these enterprise strikes, it is greater than us. I hope Canada is pleased with us. We play every single day for you guys, and we’re actually comfortable to be right here.“

Bueckers, who performed in entrance of sellout crowds in two Canadian cities inside per week (scoring 22 in Dallas‘ win in Toronto 5 days prior), framed the evening as a part of a broader shift in how girls’s sports activities are lined and consumed.

„It speaks to the sport increasing. It speaks to the worldwide attain of the sport and the way a lot girls’s sports activities has turn out to be this phenomenon the place all people desires to tune in, all people desires to concentrate, and all people desires to return and help,“ Bueckers mentioned. „So it is simply a good time to be a lady in sports activities.“

Toronto Fights Regardless of Lacking 4 Starters

The Tempo have been with out 4 common rotation gamers as Temi Fagbenle (concussion protocol), Kiki Rice (left ankle), Nyara Sabally (left knee) and Brittney Sykes (left foot) have been all sidelined with injures. Even with the illnesses, the Tempo (9-13) nonetheless pushed Dallas to the ultimate quarter: it led by as many as 13 factors through the contest and was up by one getting into the fourth.

Laura Juškaitė scored a season/career-high 25 factors, and Isabelle Harrison added 18 factors with eight rebounds. María Conde, who guarded Bueckers many of the evening, completed with 12 factors and 9 assists.

Brondello credited her staff’s battle however pointed to fatigue because the distinction within the fourth quarter.

„We’ve 4 of our principal gamers out, however I assumed this staff fought laborious. It was an ideal recreation,“ sshe mentioned. „We simply ran out of fuel. We did not have sufficient left within the tank to complete it off, however credit score to Dallas. Clearly Paige and Jessica Shepard have been wonderful, and Alysha Clark got here in and actually harm us.“

Juškaitė mentioned her teaching employees wished her enjoying with extra aggression from the opening minutes.

„Immediately my coaches wished me to be aggressive from the primary minute,“ the WNBA rookie from Lithuania mentioned. „I attacked the basket, some pictures went in, and as soon as that occurs you begin feeling like extra pictures are going to fall. Your teammates additionally begin discovering you extra usually, and that is the way it goes.“

PAIGE BUECKERS TONIGHT 🔥🔥

• 34 POINTS • 6 REBOUNDS • 6 ASSISTS • 2 STEALS• 13/22 FG pic.twitter.com/OFVmtdEF43

— Girls’s Hoops Community (@WomensHoops_USA) July 11, 2026

Bueckers, Wings Pull Away Late

Dallas held Toronto with no three-pointer and to only 10 factors within the fourth quarter, the fewest the Wings have allowed in any quarter this season. Alysha Clark scored all 10 of her factors within the body, going 4-of-4 from the sector, together with 2-of-2 from 3-point vary, off the bench. Shepard added 20 factors and a game-high 17 rebounds, and Arike Ogunbowale scored 20 factors with seven assists.

Wings coach Jose Fernandez pointed to the protection because the turning level.

„Within the fourth quarter, we held them to 10 factors. They did not hit a 3 within the fourth. That was the distinction,“ Fernandez famous. „I assumed we guarded the arc a lot better, and our pickup factors have been lots larger.“

Brondello, for her half, pointed to a handful of late Toronto turnovers.

„We had a number of foolish, unforced turnovers late that we have got to get rid of,“ she mentioned. „However there was lots that I appreciated and lots we will proceed constructing on.

The win not solely accomplished Dallas‘ season sweep of Toronto however the Wings additionally swept a four-game highway journey, creating their first four-game highway profitable streak since 2022.